Sage advice for the new Mac switcher

Thanks for the help. I have saved my laptop on a click free device, could I just use it to put onto the Macbook?

Demapples said:

Spend the waiting time googling on iTunes migration. There are a couple of great webpages out there, and an approach that will be specific to your situation. Sync your iPod one last time to the PC, then following the instructions on those pages copy the files over to your new Macbook. I did it using an external hard drive, copying first to the external hard drive, then from there to my Mac. Pays to plan this move carefully so all your playlists and settings will be preserved. Then de-authorize iTunes on the PC if you never intend to use it again. Have fun!

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For those who might prefer or need to migrate iTunes manually, I found the notes I made when I was planning my move. Here are some key links I found:
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
iTunes: What are the iTunes library files?
Move an iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac | Macworld

I should be getting my MBP today. I bought the ethernet cable and watched the steps from Drtyhnds. I think my MBP will be coming with snow lepoard 10.6. should I get the upgrade to Lion?

You don't say what kind of MBP model it is. If it's new or refurbished from Apple, there's absolutely no way it's coming with Snow Leopard.

chas_m said:

there's absolutely no way it's coming with Snow Leopard.

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Actually numerous Apple refurbs are shipping with 10.6.x

MacBook Pro 15" - Apple Store (U.S.)

Only two of the ones on that list are shipping with Snow Leopard, but you are right and I was wrong. I can't imagine why those "don't qualify for the Lion Up-To-Date program" but there you are, still possible (just) to get a machine with Snow on it from the refurb store. Thanks for pointing that out.

I only knew because I had to explain to a friend what the "Up To Date" program was on the MacBook Pro his wife bought him for Christmas.

Pretty sure that they will be gone soon... 37% OFF, and the thing comes with a 1 year warranty and is Apple Care eligible. That's a steal.

It came with Lion. It took me about 3 days of various attempts to bring my pc info over to the Mac. I had to call apple support as I then could not get into the other account. The tech from apple walked me through various ways to get in but the password lock prevented it. So he had me go to the HD reset to the laptop so he then told me to delete the account that I had made for my pc and start over and call back once everything transferred again. He ssid he never heard of anything like that. That was a 5 hr process. Once that was done I called the support line again and the new tech read the notes and said he was going to get his supervisor to help. While I waited I decided to see if I could just type in a new password like the first guy said to do and this time it worked and I got into the pc account.
So I am finally on my Mac and getting used to it.
I am off to the Genius bar to get some more help. I have signed up for a workshop as well.
Thanks for your help.

Thanks

Chas I found this really helpful and just wanted to say thanks I am new to Mac and I have taken your advice onboard. thanks again. ;D

My first foray into the forum so perhaps I missed what is needed. I called Apple Care about why my Time Machine is not backing up. After some exploring, they said that it was because WD smart ware is on my machine and that I should explore the forums or go to WD website to find out how to uninstall the smart ware and all traces.
any suggestions?

philfrates said:

My first foray into the forum so perhaps I missed what is needed. I called Apple Care about why my Time Machine is not backing up. After some exploring, they said that it was because WD smart ware is on my machine and that I should explore the forums or go to WD website to find out how to uninstall the smart ware and all traces.
any suggestions?

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Not to be unfriendly (welcome!), but really the right procedure for this is to a) search the forum for a similar topic (I'd suggest a search on "smartware" for example), and then if nothing turns up to start a new topic in the appropriate subforum asking your question. This thread is for comments to the essay that makes up the first post in the thread.

Macbook Pro shuts down when lid is closed

When I close the lid on my Macbook Pro it shuts down and I have to restart it. My software is: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74). Also, when it restarts Word, Excel, and Mail come up and I have to shut them off so they do not clog up the screen. Any help would be great.

Please see my post above.

Thank you for this info, it will help a lot for me a new mac user

top post cheers for this

Well, my new iMac arrived 3 days ago of course I've been too busy working to sit down and play with it and it is safe to say that it is such a gorgeous computer. I love the things about it so far.

My question is about video codecs. I go on websites like Cracked.com and Failblog.org and those sites have embedded video. Instead of the video, there are words there that say "plug in missing or not installed or something". I followed Chas_m's advice on the Perian in his essay but is there something else I have to do to get video to play? Do I download adobe? Not sure.

Brilliant. This took care of 99% of the things I didn't know or couldn't figure out as a PC user making the long overdue transition to Mac. If I happen to come across the other 1% I'll just check back here

P.S: This helped me out so much I'm going to put a link in my signature.

Is Adobe a big no-no to download? I know that Apple doesn't install it on new machines any more but it seems to be a necessity. Is it a security risk or no?

Lord Elrond said:

Is Adobe a big no-no to download? I know that Apple doesn't install it on new machines any more but it seems to be a necessity. Is it a security risk or no?

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Adobe makes several different software packages. None of them are security risks (assuming you keep them up to date).

I'd imagine you're probably referring to either Adobe Flash or Adobe Reader. Although Flash-based sites are in decline, I still consider it a must-have.

Reader is a bit more tricky - Apple's own Preview works very well as a PDF reader for the most part - although there may be certain sites that use specific APIs that require Adobe Reader (USPS's "print a shipping label" being one that I've encountered in the past).

Apart from the exception cwa107 mentioned, I've seen no reason for anyone to install Adobe Reader when they already have Preview.

As for Flash, I'm hoping 2011 was just a really bad year for them security wise (seemed like they updated it every couple of weeks to fix critical bugs) and that they're back on track with it. You should download the latest Flash your machine will run (the Adobe Flash page will auto-determine this for you), but I would also suggest a flash blocker for your web browser (I don't hate ads, but I *do* hate auto-playing, animated, noisy or distracting ads, which is Flash's primary speciality).